Underrated Audio: June 29-July 5

The Blended Babies create some of the dopest beats, so obviously their own remix of their own beat is gunna be dope x2. Chance The Rapper’s stand-out track from his mixtape Acid Rap reached the one million mark in downloads, and so production duo Blended Babies decided to celebrate by releasing a remix of the cut. The remix gives the song a totally different vibe, but I think I'm fucking with this one more than the original. This version is much more wavey, so roll up two joints and smoke again and again.

Atmosphere is basically my favorite rapper/production duo of all time. While I’m definitely an advocate of their old shit, any Atmosphere is good Atmosphere in my books. This past week Slug and Ant dropped off a new joint titled “Bob Seger,” which followed up a Twitter response to a fan where Slug called Atmosphere “the bob seger of underground rap.” Apparently the two are working an upcoming seventh studio album, so let’s hope we get more music from them in the near future. The beat on this one is pretty typical Ant, which isn’t a bad thing. Slug spits some introspective lines, which line up with his hook about no place feeling ‘quite right’ for him. On top of this, there are some jabs about the general public, Slug always knows how to point out hypocrisies of our society.

Once more, The Underachievers take on a beat with rock influences, with a looping sample of The Rolling Stones on “The Proclamation.” The last time we heard from the New York rap duo, on “May’s Patience,” they also took on a guitar-riffed beat. When we first heard The Underachievers on their mixtape Indigoism they seemed to have that old school sound, but with beats like this it’s not exactly a ‘90s feel, but something very fresh. And word is that they’re working on an EP produced entirely by Lex Luger, to be released in August—that is guaranteed dope.

Singer Ty Dolla $ign definitely saw the most recognition he’s received yet with his new mixtape Beach House 2. The announcement that he signed to Taylor Gang on the day the tape dropped didn’t hurt. The project, which was filled with features, had a bunch of smooth yet banging beats. This particular cut was one those, however perhaps because of its length and lack of eye-catching features it was somewhat overlooked. So I had to throw it up on Underrated Audio. The track is surprisingly interesting, with a beat switch-up for the latter half “Get It How I Live.” The second half is actually somewhat better than the first half, but you really have to absorb the song as a whole. If you haven’t checked out the tape, head here.

The rising Toronto singer released his debut project/album online on July 1st (it was on iTunes but also available for free). The self-titled debut familiarized fans with the singer (although he still keeps quite a bit of mystery on the project), who is signed to Drake’s OVO imprint. The project takes on the new age r’n’b popularized by The Weeknd, however, he has not yet perfected his own take on it. Nonetheless, the potential is there, and one track in particular stood out and was memorable above the rest, “Right Now.” PartyNextDoor serenades a woman, one of the ‘baddest in the game right now,’ over a self-produced beat which is like a flurry of electronic noises.

HNHH's "Underrated Audio" puts you on not-too-mainstream music you might have missed from the past week.

With the 4th of July having happened this past week, and people still celebrating this weekend, the blogging has been toned down the past few days. However, at the beginning of the week, we saw notable mixtape releases from Ty Dolla $ign, PartyNextDoor and Joey Bada$$. The two former singers are featured on UA this week, alongside three rappers, the "bob seger of undergroup rap" aka Atmosphere, a remix of Chance The Rapper, and rising NY duo The Underachievers.

If you need more music for your 4th of July weekend playlist, definitely take a look through these overlooked cuts.